Attorney General William Barr announced Monday that the December mass shooting by a Saudi national that left three American sailors dead in Pensacola, Florida, was an act of terrorism.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr declared on Monday that a deadly shooting last month at a naval air station in Pensacola, Fla., was an act of terrorism, and he asked Apple in an unusually high-profile request to provide access to two phones used by the gunman.

Mr. Barr’s appeal was an escalation of a continuing fight between the Justice Department and Apple pitting personal privacy against public safety.

Attorney General William Barr called the December attack by a Saudi aviation student that killed three people at a Florida Navy base an act of terrorism, escalating pressure on Apple Inc. to help unlock a pair of the gunman’s iPhones that could provide more information about his radicalization.

The top law-enforcement official called on the technology giant to find a solution in a high-profile request that ramped up the latest clash over personal privacy versus national-security investigations.

Authorities on Monday continued to investigate a shooting at a Florida naval base that left three people dead and eight wounded as a possible act of terrorism.

A Saudi pilot training at Pensacola's Naval Aviation Schools Command was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy during the rampage Friday.

Second Lt. Mohammed Alshamrani, 21, of the Royal Saudi Air Force was the sole shooter, armed with a legally purchased 9mm Glock handgun and several extra magazines, and no arrests have been made in the case, FBI special agent in charge Rachel Rojas said Sunday.

The FBI says it is treating Friday's deadly attack on a Florida navy base as a presumed terrorist attack.

The Saudi gunman - who was training at the Pensacola site - killed three sailors before he was shot dead.

Special agent Rachel Rojas said the FBI was trying to determine if he had acted alone or had connections to a group.

She said other Saudi students had been questioned but not arrested. They were reportedly confined to the base and co-operating with investigators.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top U.S. defense and military officials on Saturday reaffirmed America’s continued commitment to and relationship with Saudi Arabia after a Saudi Air Force student’s deadly attack at a Navy base in Florida.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper and others attending a security conference in California played down any initial impact on U.S.-Saudi ties. President Donald Trump described a conciliatory conversation with the Saudi king.

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A U.S. official has identified the shooter at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola as a Saudi Arabian aviation student. Authorities are investigating if the shooting was terrorism-related. The shooting was the second at a U.S. Navy base this week. Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan says 11 people were shot in Friday’s attack, four of whom died, including the shooter. Base commander Capt. Timothy Kinsella Jr. says the base will remain closed until further notice.

The man who opened fire Friday — killing at least three people — at the Pensacola naval base is a foreign national who was in the country for training, according to new reports.

The gunman was identified as a Saudi aviation student, the Associated Press reported.

Sources described him to NBC News as a foreign national.

Jeff Bergosh, a facilities manager at Pensacola Naval Base, described the scene outside the base as "chaos" as authorities responded to reports of a mass shooting and employees arrived for work.